Saturday, October 22, 2016

Review: Illusions of Fate

Downton Abbey meets Cassandra Clare in this lush, romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

“I did my best to keep you from crossing paths with this world. And I shall do my best to protect you now that you have.”

Jessamin has been an outcast since she moved from her island home of Melei to the dreary country of Albion. Everything changes when she meets Finn, a gorgeous, enigmatic young lord who introduces her to the secret world of Albion’s nobility, a world that has everything Jessamin doesn’t—power, money, status…and magic. But Finn has secrets of his own, dangerous secrets that the vicious Lord Downpike will do anything to possess. Unless Jessamin, armed only with her wits and her determination, can stop him.Kiersten White captured readers’ hearts with her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy and its effortless mix of magic and real-world teenage humor. She returns to that winning combination of wit, charm, and enchantment in Illusions of Fate, a sparkling and romantic new novel perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare, The Madman’s Daughter, and Libba Bray.

(This review is so overdue I am ashamed but I finally got around to editing my bullet points and putting them into sentences...better late than never...)

This book has been pretty raved about across the internet and it took be way too long to see what the hype was all about. I picked this book up half out of boredom and half out of curiosity and was completely swept away into this magical world. Even though I feel like everyone was talking about it when it first released, I actually managed to go into the story pretty blind which just made the whole experience all the more magical.

Right from the start, Illusions of Fate takes you on this rollercoaster adventure into a world that is cold and gray. I've noticed that I really like the juxtaposition between a prim and proper world versus a colorful and wild one. At first, I was a bit confused over what was going on but Kiersten White quickly clears that up and sets into motion the overarching plot while throwing in different bits about the history of the world.

Jessamin is such an intriguing character as she's born of a Melei mother and an Albion father - she's essentially a combination of the two worlds. The Albion world looks upon her with distaste because she has a sense of fire within that clashes with their rigid society. She travels to Albion to study at the university her father teaches at and gets swept up in a dark and deceitful world of magic when she meets Finn. We have Lord Downpike who plays the evil villain who wants to take over the world and in order to do that, he needs access to all the powers which he believes Finn has the key.

Honestly, there were some parts of the story that were just so dark it caught me off guard but nothing was ever too terrible to handle. Lord Downpike is just so many shades of messed up that as the story unfolded and his identity was revealed, I was just completely blown away. On the topic of Downpike, he uses ravens to be his eyes around the city and I must mention my favorite raven of all fiction: Sir Bird. Even his name is perfect! (Sorry Chainsaw...) Sir Bird plays such an important role and I just...you must read this book to find out! Another side character I want to mention briefly is Eleanor. She's the younger sister of one of Albion's elites and while she doesn't have a ton of magical ability, she definitely knows how to use her abilities to her advantage. Also, she's just such a bright person compared to the rest of dreary Albion.

Illusions of Fate just left me completely mind blown and I can't believe that Kiersten White managed to create such fantastic story and characters in under 300 words. I definitely need to pick up more of her books in the future and I'm secretly hoping for another story in this world.